The Cuddle Pact

02

Cuddle.

In which the cuddle pact is born.

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As I am British, and this is set in London, some words may confuse you if you're not British. Chips = fries.

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"THEY'RE STILL OUTSIDE, MIRA." ADA SIGHED, allowing the curtain to fall back into its original place. My roommate turned to me, her glasses perched low on her nose. "When I told you to have fun last night, I didn't mean this much fun."

Falling back onto the couch, I groaned. "Sebastian Harrington," I mumbled through my fingers.

"What?"

"I made out with Sebastian Harrington."

A gasp pulled from Ada's lips and she squealed as she rushed to me. "The billionaire Sebastian Harrington?"

I nodded in an embarrassed manner, too tired to even fight her prying hands that removed mine from my face. Her green eyes were filled with amusement and her right eye fell into a flirty wink.

"Now I know why there are so many cameras."

Taking a seat beside me, she opened up her laptop, typing Sebastian's name into Google, accompanied by girlfriend. Upon flicking through images, I found that pictures of Sebastian with a woman on his arm were severely lacking in abundance.

"He's never had a relationship-well a public one anyway. You're the first person anyone has seen him make out with."

Sugar honey ice tea.

That would certainly explain why he didn't have the game I expected him to. Instead, he was actually adorable and genuinely put a smile on my face. It seemed that pick up lines were his thing.

Granted that I could only remember the first one he said, I knew more evidently followed since I actually made out with him.

Our attention was pulled from the laptop when three swift knocks sounded through our small apartment. Glancing to the door, Ada and I were all for ignoring it since that was what the press had been doing since the morning, but when it became even more persistent, Ada huffed loudly.

"They're getting on my last nerve."

Going to the door, I peeked through the peephole, my jaw almost falling off its hinges when I saw Sebastian and two heavily built men standing beside him.

"Ada!" I squeaked, beckoning her over with a loose hand. "What do I do?"

"Maybe open the door?"

Peeking through the hole again, I was nearly salivating at how handsome he was. I could definitely appreciate him more since I was sober.

"Are you sure I should open the door?"

"Unless you want more pictures of me standing outside your apartment, Pumpkin, I think you should."

His voice travelled through the door and I threw a desperate glance to Ada, tentatively opening the door. "How did you find my apartment?"

Pushing his way into my apartment, glasses shielded his eyes and the rest his bodyguards remained outside after one followed Sebastian in, turning their back to the door as I shut it.

He flashed me a bright grin. "With all the commotion outside, I knew it was you."

Ada stood beside me with her chin practically on the floor, her eyes attentively watching Sebastian. Glancing from me to her, a blush scattered across his cheeks.

"Um, Pumpkin? Do you have somewhere we can talk alone?"

I nearly fell to the floor with the pet name.

Coming to her senses, Ada shook out of her daze and chucked me a silent look. "Pumpkin!" she whisper-yelled in my ear, ushering me towards my bedroom. "You can go to her bedroom and forget I'm even here."

Looking at Sebastian over my shoulder, I felt my stomach bottom out with anticipation when he followed in my pursuit. The door closed softly behind him and his eyes roved around the room once he slid the shades from his face.

"Artistic," he hummed. "Just like I expected."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked into his dark eyes. "Why are you here?"

His mouth sported a light smirk. "To offer you a deal, of course."

"A deal?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?"

"A financial one." He responded quickly, slipping his hand into his pocket as he casually leaned against the wall. "To compensate for what mess I've gotten you into. The press can be...annoying."

I scoffed at his choice of a word. "You want to offer me money?"

He nodded solemnly. "Quite a lot of it actually because the press isn't going to be off your back for a long while."

Falling back onto my bed, I closed my eyes and wished I could just fall asleep. Anything to forget about the whole morning and the unwelcome hangover that accompanied it. But the harsh reality of it all was that I couldn't fall asleep. No matter how hard I tried.

"How about a cuddle?" I joked weakly, knowing the trick to getting to sleep was if I was being cuddled. My other roommate didn't mind helping me fall asleep...before he got a girlfriend and moved in with her.

"A cuddle?"

Suddenly seeing the benefits of this, I lifted my head up. "Instead of paying me, I need you to cuddle me."

He held back a laugh. "I'm offering you £100,000. I really doubt one cuddle is the equivalent to that."

"Fine, maybe 30 cuddles. A cuddle for every night for the next 30 days."

He gave me a gleaming smile. "I'm not going to pass down the opportunity to be in your bed, but are there going to be rules...?"

"Mira." I filled, standing up. "No particular rules, but no funny business."

He rubbed his jaw, his teeth latching onto his bottom lip before his hands were placed into his pockets. "I'm a busy man, what about if I can't make it?"

Realising I didn't take that into account, I shrugged. "It can just be done the next night."

He seemed unsure, a look of incredulity flitting passes his features. His head was cocked to the side, and a fraction of his pearly whites shined through his pink lips. "I have all the money in the world, and all you want from me is a cuddle?"

"Well, I need you to cuddle me to sleep. Sleep to me is worth more than any cash you could give me."

He slowly grinned and his hand emerged from the pocket of his expensive slacks. "Then we have ourselves a cuddle pact."

Shaking his warm hand, it felt slightly exhilarating to actually touch him sober, because I was actually aware of my actions. Before it got too awkward, I slipped my hand from his, rendering him with a soft smile.

The silence began to drift downwards, but Sebastian intercepted it as he spoke. "Seeing as we're cuddle buddies," he smirked lightly. "How about I take you to a restaurant where the menu isn't me-n-u?"

I let out a brief laugh, unable to control the smile that emerged. "You want to take me out?"

His hands slid back into his slacks and he perched himself on my table. "I want to have a conversation where we're both sober and it isn't businesslike, so yes, I want to take you out-preferably today."

I mulled over the various excuses I could've mustered up, but fell short when I realised I had none. Work wasn't an excuse anymore since the restaurant I worked at had closed down due to the owner's personal reasons, and I was in the process of looking for any chef vacancies.

"Fine," I agreed, noticing the way he grinned broadly. "But you have to tell me where we're going so I know what to wear."

He shook his head as his dark mahogany eyes gleamed with the prospect of taking me out. "I figured you would say yes, so what was intended as a surprise will stay a surprise." Having the common decency to head towards the door once I racked my wardrobe and, at random, picked a dress in my hand, he briefly tilted his head over his shoulder. "That black little number would be just fine."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

If I had even bothered to open the copious amount of fortune cookies Ada had stashed in the cupboard, I would know that it would've said something along the lines of 'patience is a virtue' because that is what is always said when someone is hurled into a circumstance where their patience is most likely to run thin, and honestly, I was in one.

"Come on!" I begged, trying my best to appeal to his good side. "Just try it!"

Okay, maybe not in one exactly, but for the past ten minutes, I had been trying to get Sebastian to try the beautiful combination of chips and ice cream.

"When I offered to get you ice cream, I really didn't expect you to combine my chips with them." He laughed deeply, leaning back in his seat.

We were sat in his personal car - after the difficult task of getting passed the press - eating a snack before our actual meal.

In all honesty, I was having fun because despite all his cringe-worthy jokes and pick up lines, he was good company, and I felt glad that he was my 'cuddle buddy' as weird as that sounded because then I knew pillow talk would not be excruciatingly uninteresting.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it."

Sighing, he took hold of my ice cream cup, taking a chip from his bag and dipping it into the dessert. I watched as he gingerly placed it in his mouth, his eyes glancing at me sideways.

"It's not bad." He nonchalantly shrugged, taking another one.

Rolling my eyes playfully, I leaned back and ran a quick hand through my hair. It was silent for a while before the car came to a halt.

Looking out the window, Sebastian unclipped his seatbelt. "We're here."

To my surprise, it wasn't anyplace public. The restaurant was empty save for the staff that worked there, and they all waited as the personal driver lead Sebastian out of the car.

Noticing it was a classy restaurant, I tugged a little on my dress that reached just below mid-thigh. "Um, Sebastian?" I faltered, lingering back in the car. "When you said restaurant, I thought you meant with people in it."

He turned around, shooting me a small smile before he reached for my hand and pulled me gently out of the car. "I can hardly get to know you in the way the pact requires if people are staring and taking pictures, can I?"

"The pact?"

He stepped closer to say it quietly, so I could only hear it. "I really don't think that you'd want a stranger to be cuddling you at night, so this is me, not being a stranger."

As a few people began noticing our presence, Sebastian took hold of my hand and lead us inside.

I couldn't say that I was disappointed with Sebastian's choice of restaurant since the food was delicious and he was a good conversationalist.

It wasn't long before we were back at my apartment, both Sebastian and I a bundle of nerves as I wished that I wouldn't have an embarrassing moment, especially in front of him.

"So," he mumbled quietly, wringing his hands as he shifted his weight from foot to foot, directing his gaze elsewhere as I pulled an oversized hoodie over the thin top I was wearing. "How is this going to work?"

My hands lightly trembled as I pulled the covers back, fluffing the pillows. "Well, we cuddle," I tied my hair in a loose bun as he slowly neared the bed. "Until I fall asleep — then you're free to leave."

He nodded quietly, slipping his shoes off as he rolled the sleeves of his dress shirt to his elbows. "Do you have insomnia?"

I didn't meet his eyes as I nodded.

Getting into the bed, I was unsure to face away from him or not, but it seemed like he made that decision when he laid on top of the covers, slightly against the headboard whilst opening his arms.

Tentatively, I rested my head on his chest, closing my eyes as his addictive cologne travelled to my nose. "You smell really good."

His chest vibrated with the laugh. "So do you."

It was silent for a moment before I sighed softly, his calm breathing soothing me as he adjusted his position to be more comfortable.

Before long, my eyelids were too heavy for me to keep up, and I barely heard Sebastian's whisper.

"You like sleeping? So do I. Maybe we should do it together."